Things Needed
K nitrate , or salt peter ( also do it as saltpetre ) , as it was historically yell , has been pull from the earth for century of long time . It has been and is most often used as an oxidizing agent for fuse and fireworks , but it has garden and horticultural utilise as well . It can provide nitrogen and potassium to plant , which are two of the three required macronutrients , and it is also the most common component of most commercial tree stump remover . Purchasing atomic number 19 nitrateis far easier and probably more cost - effective than hold it yourself , but it can be done . It is extracted from manure as opposed to soil .
Preparing the Pile
Step 1
Put sheets of plywood down where the pile of manure is to go . The plyboard will prevent the liquid that you rain cats and dogs over the agglomerate from die back into the ground .
Step 2
Mound the pile of manure over the top of the plyboard . The passel can be as in high spirits as 6 or 7 feet .
Step 3
blend green materials — such as leafage and grass snip — and straw into the muckle to increase its porousness and oxygen flow . Up to one-half of the pile can be green materials .
Step 4
work up a protective construction around the pile . Stack wrangle of cinder block in a staggered radiation diagram on either side of the pile to form the side walls . Spread a tarp over the top to act as a roof . Place an extra quarrel of cinder blocks to hold the tarp down . The structure will protect the pile from wind and rain .
Step 5
Pour cattle ' urine — or the urine of other farm beast — over the pile . You will necessitate to lend urine at least once per week for up to four calendar month to extract the potassium nitrate .
Extracting the Potassium Nitrate
Scrape the yellow crust off of the top of the cumulation with a shovel . The gall is the K nitrate crystals forming on the pile ’s surface . The crystals will form after months of pouring urine over the top of the pile .
plaza alternating layers of Sir Henry Joseph Wood ash and cloth onto the bottom of a bucket with hollow in the bottom . Start with a layer of material . tote up a thin stratum of ash over the material , and then bestow another layer of cloth . The cloth and wood ash will act as a filter .
Put the crusted material into the bucket with a shovel . glove should be put on . Fill about three - quarters full . position the bucket onto two cinder block define apart the breadth of the pail so that the liquid that run through can be collected underneath .
Boil 2 congius of water .
order collection pan under bucketful . teem boiling water over the top of the stuff in bucketful .
Step 6
come in the pile up liquid into black plastic or metal pail so that the supererogatory piddle can vaporize . The lead common salt and residuum left behind will be K nitrate .
Warning
Due to potassium nitrate ’s independent use as an accelerant in explosive cloth , always handle it cautiously . Prior to manufacture , check local law to make certain it is legal to gather it where you live . If you contrive to use K nitrate as a plant food , do so slenderly , as the atomic number 19 content is extremely high-pitched and can potentially burn industrial plant ancestor if used in too in high spirits a density .
